Like so many other people I have been shocked by Easycar's complete lack of customer service. I rented a car back in May in order to help my sister move and provided Easycar with my age (24 years) at the time of the booking - when I arrived at the airport I was told by Budget (the company Easyjet had chosen as the local contractor) that they would not rent a vehicle of that size to anyone under the age of 25... something that does not apply to most other car rental companies.
I called Easycar's shockingly expensive (60p a minute!) "help" line and was told that I would simply have to accept a smaller car and I could apply for reimbursement of the cost of having booked a larger car later on. I explained to the gentleman on the phone that this would not work for me as I had chosen a larger vehicle because - and I know this seems shocking! - I needed a larger vehicle! I asked if Easycar could put me in touch with another Car Rental Company (of which there are many at Stansted Airport) in order to honor their agreement and was informed that no they could not and I would have to take the smaller car.
I walked over to the National Car Rental desk and inquired into their policies and was told that they could rent me a car the size of the one Budget was refusing me. Once again I braved the "help" line in order to inform Easycar that I would not be picking up the Budget car as they had breached the contract that they had made with me by failing to provide the product I had paid for. Much to Easycar's dismay I had the audacity to request that I have the money I had pre-paid (over 140 pounds) reimbursed – to which I was told I would have to apply to the company to get my money back.
This application apparently cannot be submitted by email - despite all Easycar.com's transactions being over the web - so not only did I have to print off my Easycar Booking Voucher (something that they already have a copy off in their computer system, since they were the ones to email it to me) with my attached cover letter, I then had to pay postage from Canada in order to get these documents to them.
So, so far Easycar has not only failed to provide me with a Car, their mistake has also cost me a more expensive car rental as a result of not pre-booking with National Car Rental, the cost of calling Easycar's "help" line in order to be told that they were actually unable to provide any assistance, and then finally I'm now paying for postage in order to get reimbursed the money that I lost as a result of their ignorance of their Contractors Terms and Conditions.
So I've wasted enough of my time and money on this Easycar debacle so far - but wait - there's more! I receive an email from them a few weeks later informing me that they "regret that [they] cannot refund [me] for [my] booking" because I failed to read the Terms and Conditions which state that "The Minimum rental age is 23 years depending on vehicle group".
But wait! Remember the part where I'm 24 years of age as specified in my cover letter and during the process of making the booking - and since the Terms and Conditions governing the Vehicle Group is dependent on the Contractor, a piece of information that Easycar does not provide until after you book - and have provided your age - it is really up to them to make an informed decision as to who to Contract out to... but clearly the the Customer Care agent is unable to actually read the Cover Letter that I have spent $7.50 to post to her... so now I have to explain Easycar's Terms and Conditions and the format of their bookings process to one of its employee - and the person in charge of Customer Care no less, which lets face it says a lot about the quality of its staff.
I get an email back within days letting me know that I will be refunded my money. Now remember how I booked the car back in May? Well its now August - so Easycar have held on to my money for 4 months - and have only agreed to return it after considerable effort on my part.
As far as I'm concerned all of these complaints are basic breach of contract issues, which put Easycar clearly at fault, and as such they should be working for their customer - 'cause let's face it, I'm never going to book with them again and after hearing my horror story nor will any of my friends and family.
It is my personal opinion that Easycar's staff are not really as unorganized, technologically inept and untrained as they would like you to believe, but rather that these are tactics in order to avoid returning the money that they have illegally held on to. These people are unscrupulous. Stay very far away.
And if you're unlucky enough to already be caught up in this web of corporate corruption just persevere - they are in the wrong and if you keep fighting it they will eventually email you those magical words: "We would like to sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to you."
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